Examination of Witnesses (Questions 280-285)
RT HON
MARGARET BECKETT
MP, MR PAUL
ARKWRIGHT AND
MS MARIOT
LESLIE
15 MARCH 2007
Q280 Linda Gilroy: Are there any
results you can point to at this stage?
Margaret Beckett: It is a little
early. At the moment we have got through the first committee.
I take some minor encouragement from the fact that countries like
China did not vote against, which they very easily could have
done, and that suggests that they do not have closed minds on
the issue but obviously we have just dealt with those issues in
the first committee, now the preparatory work is taking place
to prepare for it to go to the group of experts and it is only
when we have those aspirations we will have a clear idea of where
governments like China stand.
Q281 Linda Gilroy: Apart from the
Arms Trade Treaty, have there been any signs that China is changing
its way as far as arms exports are concerned?
Margaret Beckett: Not particularly
on arms exports, I do not think. There are areas of policy where
we engage with China, for example in relationship to Africa, some
of the international problems like Sudan and so on.
Q282 Linda Gilroy: Governments in
developing countries where there have been concerns.
Margaret Beckett: There is evidence
of engagement with China beginning to make a difference to some
of the approaches that they take but not so far in this particular
area as far as I am aware.
Mr Arkwright: On China there is
an EU pilot project aimed at consulting with the Chinese and improving
our own exports controls and the deputy of my department was in
China recently talking to the Chinese, both the industry and the
officials concerned, about export controls and China represents
a very large part of our outreach effort so we are talking directly
about export controls and the way we do things, but, as the Foreign
Secretary has said, this is a long process which is going to take
some time to bear fruit.
Q283 Judy Mallaber: Romania and Bulgaria
have just joined the EU and Saferworld published reports on their
arms export systems at accession and in both countries they found
lack of transparency and they doubted they were applying the EU
Code of Conduct. Do you agree with that assessment, that we are
concerned about their transparency and whether they are abiding
by that and, if so, is there any action that will be taken on
that?
Margaret Beckett: We did work
bilaterally both in Bulgaria and Romania in the run up to their
accession and, of course, now they are members they will be regularly
assessed through the peer review process. We share the view that
there is more work that can be done with them and clearly we are
continuing to do that work and I believe that Saferworld are conducting
a further assessment and they are implementing the Code of Conduct.
We regard this as ongoing work, not work that is completed.
Q284 Judy Mallaber: Having been in
the Congo last year I am very conscious of the research instituted
by the All-Party Group on Great Lakes that a large number of weapons
are getting into the Eastern Congo and into that region which
originated from Eastern European countries, not necessarily Bulgaria
but from that part of the world, and we are going to be doing
some more research on that. Do you have any concerns, specifically
in relation to Bulgaria and Romania, as EU countries that UK origin
items are being shipped out via those countries to undesirable
destinations because these Eastern European countries clearly
are amongst those who are engaged in weapons being transferred?
Margaret Beckett: We do look very
carefully at any applications to export from this country at all
to anywhere against the consolidated criteria and one of the things
that we take into account, wherever it is, including Bulgaria
or Romania, are the risks of diversion, and as you said there
are suggestions of problems of diversion into the Great Lakes.
Like you, I am not aware of a suggestion that comes specifically
from those countries, but we would look at it from anywhere.
Q285 Chairman: Thank you. Foreign
Secretary, it is 4.30pm. Can I thank you and your colleagues for
coming this afternoon. Also, thank you to the Department for the
answers to the questions that we raised. It is a very complicated
area in the sense that it is a complex area and we have some quite
strong views about things, but we do appreciate very much the
effort that your colleagues put into answering our questions and
we are very grateful for that. Thank you, again.
Margaret Beckett: Thank you on
behalf of the Department for those words of appreciation.
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